2023/2024 NWFL: Heartland Queens stun Naija Ratels to book Super Six ticket

Posted : 19 April 2024

Heartland Queens have secured their first-ever Super Six ticket after an emphatic 2-1 victory against visitors from the nation's administrative capital, Abuja, Naija Ratels in Wednesday's NWFL Premiership matchday 13 game at the main bowl of Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri.

Goals from the duo, Onyinyechi Kalu in the second minute of the game and defender, Chinyere Iheoma's 34th minute proved adequate to hand the Owerri mainstreams their ticket to a chance of winning their first-ever league title in the club's eight-year existence.

Naija Ratels' most enterprising player on matchday, Grace Saliu, scored her side's consolation goal in the 68th minute following a goalmouth melee that fooled the home goalkeeper, Uchenna Chukwu.

Bookmakers had already tagged the game to be explosive and fierce given the rivalry between the top flights dating back to their days in the nation's second-tier league, NWFL Championship.

Again, the sides' placements on the eight-team Group A log only added to strengthen the bookmakers' prediction, while the homers are well placed to nab their first-ever Super Six ticket with the slimmest of victories, the Abuja-based side is struggling and needed a win badly to stave off the whirlwind of relegation that stares them in the face.

The Owerri landladies, of late, typical of their newfound characteristic not to allow their opponents a settling-down time, saw the side's top scorer and nimble-footed Onyinyechi Kalu round her markers before shooting past the hapless goalie, Patience David, for the opener in just two minutes of game action.

The unsettling early goal brought out the meanness in the Naija Ratels as the side surged forward in numbers as they sought to cancel the Owerri side lead to no avail as the Owerri mainstreams' goalie, Uchenna Chukwu, was always spot-on to puncture the dangerous moves.

The Owerri side missed some glaring and sore chances to up the goal tally, and the culprits are conjurewoman Mary Lucky, on-field captain Chimebere Opara, and bullish finisher Chinedu Chinaka.

However, it was the left-back, Chinyere Iheoma, who made up for her teammates' blushes when she fired a shot from the free-kick spot that sailed harmlessly into the back net with the opposite goalie, Patience David, with hands akimbo and bemused.

Naija Ratels' gaffer, Bankole Olowookere's response to the stunner was to pull out the duo, Ranti Joshua and Augustina Unamba, for Joy Igbokwe and Temitope Alayande, aimed at strengthening the front women push to cancel the deficits but those efforts waited a bit longer until the 68th minute when the best player on the Abuja-based side, Grace Saliu, scored what turned out to be an academic goal.

Mary Lucky, always a marked player, had an unfair share of the severest knocks from visitors, too much to swallow the bitter pills that the manager of the Owerri side, Obi Ogbala, pulled her out in place of the slippery Nigeria's cadet jewel, Yetunde Anyantosho, and Chinwendu Orji also came in to take the place of match-opening goal-scorer, Kalu Onyinyechi.

The end-to-end pushes on both sides failed to add to the goal tally as the Owerri mainstreams deservedly ran away with a hard-fought victory to book a passage to this year's elite Super Six competition.

The hard-fought victory has inked a historical Super Six ticket for the Owerri side with a game to spare at top-flight newcomers, Dannaz Ladies in Lagos on the last day of the regular season next week Wednesday.

Aside from Heartland Queens, two other group members and leaders, Nasarawa Amazons and Confluence Queens, are equally seated on the supersonic Super Six flight with a game to wrap up the regular season next Wednesday.

2023/2024 NWFL: Heartland Queens stun Naija Ratels to book Super Six ticket

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